Rethinking the vegetable print; a simple printing technique using fruit and vegetables from the garden or left over from the weekly shop.
I really enjoy looking closely at things; for me, printing is a way of directly recording what I experience.
I’m using apples—but you can use just about any fruit or vegetables that you have to hand. They can be cut in many different ways, so try out a few patterns first—I used a cookie cutter to cut circles.
Activity
To make a multi layered print, start with a cut apple. Press the surface onto a light coloured stamp pad and then press the inked surface onto a piece of paper. Print plenty of times.
Put a magazine under your paper, to make the work surface more flexible.
Use a lino cutting tool or plastic knife to cut a simple pattern or make marks in the printing surface of your apple. Always cut away from your body and keep your supporting hand behind the cutting edge.
Use a cloth to wipe away excess moisture; the starch mixes nicely with ink.
Print on top of your previous prints in a darker colour.
Click on the images below for step-by-step instructions for creating your own unique fruit prints.
Activity Guide
Click the button to download this activity guide as a PDF. If you would like to receive one of our Activity Packs in the post, please email mdf@suffolkartlink.org.uk with your full name and address, including postcode.
What will you do with your prints, apart from enjoy their vibrancy?
They’d be great for jam and chutney labels and how about printing your own gift wrap?
Whatever you do with them, please send us some images of the prints you make, so that we can post them to the blog site gallery for everyone to enjoy. You can email them to us at mdf@suffolkartlink.org.uk or text to 07857002974.
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2 Comments. Leave new
I think the Silver Birch seem to have more expresive faces than most, In the gnarly bark there is often eyes and imaginary lips scolding. The way it sheds its bark throws light and shade, hillocks and hollows gouged into it by weather. They are most interesting to me.
I’d like to share a hidden face in Bury St Edmunds.
When strolling through the Great Churchyard I always see what looks like the profile of a man shouting – eye, nose and mouth agape. Perhaps others can see it too. Taking the lime tree avenue to the right with the Norman Tower behind you it is, as I recall, on the second lime tree of the row to your left.